Evaluation of Scholarly Sources

Climate Change in Alaska: Scholarly Sources

I was able to immediately find a significant number of scholarly sources covering the issues of climate change and sustainability in Alaska.  The limiting description was finding an article that analyzed the data that weather stations were generating and the results from various sustainability projects.  There were quite a few articles detailing the weather pattern over many decades in a very detailed manner, but the two articles I have chose stood out in there analysis and comprehensive conversation on many of the climate issues in Alaska.

The Alaska Climate Research Center; Geophysical Institute UAF;
"Temperature Changes in Alaska Figures" (2011)

Source 1 - "Modeling Sustainability of Arctic Communities: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration of Researchers and Local Knowledge Holders"

Purpose

This source was a study of a compilation of 23 local researchers to examine the environmental, political, and social factors in effect in their respective region near a particular Caribou herd.  They also specifically looked at the government cuts on the funding to the sustainability programs in the nearby villages.  Their data seems to showcase a warming climate and negative effects from the petroleum being harvested.  Overall their goal was not to define a plan for the future, or label and address a specific problem, but instead to unite their scientific community with common interest and information.

How and where was it published?

The compilation was published by Springer in the pages 815 to 828 journal Ecosystems in Volume 7, No. 8 in December of 2004.

Cited Sources

The sources include reports and research sources on the characteristics and study of caribou, the land types around the area, plant life, and studies and analysis on the population and government polices in the local region and state.

Author

There are a total of 26 authors for this particular source; Jack A. Kruse, Robert G. White, Howard E. Epstein, Billy Archie, Matt Berman, Stephen R. Braund, F. Stuart Chapin, III, Johnny Charlie, Sr., Colin J. Daniel, Joan Eamer, Nick Flanders, Brad Griffith, Sharman Haley, Lee Huskey, Bernice Joseph, David R. Klein, Gary P. Kofinas, Stephanie M. Martin, Stephen M. Murphy, William Nebesky, Craig Nicolson, Don E. Russell, Joe Tetlichi, Arlon Tussing, Marilyn D. Walker and Oran R. Young.

Audience

The source was stated to be written for the scientific community of Alaska as a unifying document to understand the environmental situation around the caribou region.

Where was it found?

I found this source using JSTOR as a resource searching the terms sustainability and Alaska.

Source 2 - "Policy strategies to address sustainability of Alaskan boreal forests in response to directionally changing climate"

Purpose

This differentiates from the previous source in that it analyzes many of the issues creating the problem and discusses problem-solving in a variety of different strategies.  The article also focuses almost entirely on the human responsibility for the problem, the problems with addressing sustainability in a complicated industrial world, and where in society and government changes can be made.  The makeup is less focused on presenting data for the community and more so on using found information to explain why and how changes are to be made in Alaska.

How and where was it published?

The source was published by the National Academy of Sciences in the journal entitled Proceedings of the National Academy of the United States of America (PNAS) on November 7, 2006, in Volume 103, No. 45 pages 16637 to 16643.

Cited Sources

There are 63 sources are a mixture of assessments, research, journals, and books covering sustainability. environmental policy, studies on the boreal forest, global environmental change, and many sources on the local systems in Alaska.

Author

There is one major contributing author, F. Stuart Chapin III, who was part of a special series that selected members of their National Academy of Sciences organization but the source also lists Amy L. Lovecraft, Erika S. Zavaleta, Joanna Nelson, Martin D. Robards, Gary P. Kofinas, Sarah F. Trainor, Garry D. Peterson, Henry P. Huntington, and Rosamond L. Naylor.  I found it interesting that the main contributer F. Stuart Chapin III was one of the first few names listed in the article I found well before finding this article.

Audience

The audience is most definitely the scientific and political community with the idea in mind that some of the research and ideas would be transferred into actual policy that would eventually effect the general population.

Where was it found?

I found this source using JSTOR as a resource searching the terms sustainability and Alaska.